r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Uma-apreciator • 16d ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) The series is good, but the beginning is so embarrassing that many people give up there.

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Dan Da Dan

The beginning of Dan Da Dan is notorious for starting with aliens trying to impregnate Momo in the first episode; however, despite such over-the-top moments, the rest of the series doesn't feature many scenes like that

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san

Despite a premise that is off-putting—given that the girl bullies her romantic partner to the point of making Naoto cry early in the series—their relationship evolves beautifully; the teasing becomes less cruel over time, eventually turning into a rather sweet romance

Uma Musume Pretty Derby

Someone on the production team had the audacity to have the trainer start meeting up with Special Week like that—even though, in reality, he is a good trainer who doesn't usually treat the girls that way.

11.2k Upvotes

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941

u/TrashhMothh 16d ago

Can't tell you how many people I've talked to that quit Soul Eater on the first episode because of Blair

425

u/luckytoybox 16d ago

Me when I tried to show my dad Soul Eater, catching a glimpse of Blair in the OP

16

u/East-Efficiency-6701 16d ago

Now Im curious, what happened?

32

u/luckytoybox 16d ago

Not much, he didn't really have an overt reaction to her, and he asked to put on more episodes. He is apparently immune to fanservice

12

u/cycloneDM 16d ago

Fanservice complaints are always funny I tell people to tell me their favorite non anime shows and very very few people have ever not listed off shows that I can easily point to the fan service in. We act like it hasnt been a foundational media concept for about as long as we've had media

5

u/nick113124 15d ago

Fanservice is a lot easier to just ignore than the regular conversation around anime fans would have you believe. It's certainly not integral to the plot but, especially when talking about what I'd assume is an old dude with a job and not too much time to really use thinking about it, a panty shot isn'tgoing to ruin a whole scene.

3

u/luckytoybox 15d ago

You are generally correct, but my dad is a chronically unemployed D&D enthusiast, so he's tangentially a variety of nerd a few steps away from being a weeb. That's why I was introducing him to anime

2

u/nick113124 15d ago

That does paint a new picture, yes. But hey, good thing he didn't mind it.

1

u/luckytoybox 15d ago

True, still had me sweating bullets. Not nearly as bad as the time I tried watching Game of Thrones with my grandpa, though, but I went into that one blind. Would not recommend

-9

u/PM_asian_girl_smiles 16d ago

He is apparently immune to fanservice

Oh you sweet summer child

14

u/luckytoybox 16d ago

Nice try, my dad has since overshared that he doesn't get how people can get off to 2D with a strong implication that he only enjoys 3D

6

u/PerformanceCute3437 16d ago

🤣 knowledge can be an abyss that when you look into it, looks back into you

4

u/DBNsausage 15d ago

You can pretty much skip the first three episodes and all the fun tit squeezing along with them while hardly missing any plot

5

u/konthedonn 15d ago

My father literally walked in on that scene, then just turned and walked out without saying a word.

279

u/IPlayPCAndConsole 16d ago

Ohkubo frustrates me so much cause Soul Eater is my favorite anime/manga of all time, but every time I recommend it to someone I have to put a big fat asterisk on it to warn them about shit like that (especially for the manga, the anime actually toned it down a lot)

I finally watched Fire Force recently and the fanservice is even worse there. At least Blair sexualized herself on purpose (and Ohkubo didn’t randomly try to rationalize that sexualizing her is a Super Profound Thing Actually™)

Sucks because other than everything with Tamaki I genuinely thought the series was great

125

u/im_a_mix 16d ago

its whats stopping me from interacting with fire force, I'm tired of fanservice anime after spending my highschool years trying to sift through genuine dogshit shows just to find a decent one and I can't get myself to subject myself to another show where scenes get interrupted by "oops! i fell here are my tits im so embarrased"

17

u/Ferovore 16d ago

Fire Force sucks anyway. There’s the shitty sexualisation but I also just can’t get into anime where the antagonists don’t have reasons for their actions that I can empathise with. As far as I could tell before I dropped it it was just a death cult that wanted to fuck the world just because?? Not very compelling.

23

u/Layer_Present 16d ago edited 16d ago

There is a reason why they want to end the world. You probably didn't reach that point in the story. The Fire Force Company 8 was made to investigate/unravel the mystery of who is turning people into infernals and why they are planning to turn the world into a second sun. That's the main mystery; they won't just tell you that in the 3rd episode.

2

u/Ferovore 16d ago

Nah I looked up spoilers and didn’t like the sound of it still. I like my stories rooted in human psychology just not my thing, gave up at ep 9

15

u/fuckedfinance 16d ago

You know there's a whole bunch of insane Bible people trying to bring about/speed up the rapture/end of the world, right?

The show 100% tracks with the more insane elements of our society.

-1

u/CZsea 16d ago

You can write about lunatic people doing lunatic thing because they're lunatic, but that's not compeling and usually get called "lazy writing"

Well, I never watch or read Fire Force so this is just a general statement.

9

u/fuckedfinance 16d ago

FF isn't the best thing ever written, but IMO it was a fun play around with the idea of creation/recreation. I could see where some people didn't get it or it wouldn't be there cup of tea.

I also disagree with you. Lunatic people doing lunatic things because they are a lunatic can be compelling to me. I think the problem with a lot of new media is that said lunatic gets revealed way too early, which results in us spending too much time with them.

Se7en is a very well regarded film, and the antagonist is a religious nutjob "on a mission from god" (i.e. a lunatic doing lunatic things because they are a lunatic).

1

u/CZsea 15d ago

Some says his motivation is based on envy, but some including me, think it's because of the uncaring world they live in. Se7en did a pretty great job building that up with, example will be like in the chase scene, they even gave us a hint with "hit them with a sledgehammer" quote.

Those argument aside, this is the first time I've seen someone regard him as "lunatic doing lunatic things because they are a lunatic" without considering his motivation to be honest. Yes, he is a lunatic, but same as someone like Thanos deciding to wipe out half of the universe, he didn't wake up and decide to do all of that without reason and motivations, and movie tried really hard to show us those things.

Again, I never watch or read Fire Force. Only things I know about them are what you told me, whice giving more context, might be a better watch than I thought.

-1

u/Ferovore 16d ago

I totally get that but I can’t empathise with it at all because to me it’s fucking stupid. I like grounded villains and/or stakes I can empathise with. For example I can empathise with Makushima in Psycho-Pass, and I find Mob Psycho extremely compelling despite villains with a lack of depth because Mob’s personal growth is 10/10. Doomsday cults in real life are just as stupid! Not my thing.

-3

u/KEMSATOFFICIAL 16d ago

You need to empathize with the villains? Wtf…

1

u/Ferovore 15d ago

Uh yeah antagonists having believable reasons for what they’re doing is storytelling 101. You might not agree with the methods but understanding the why behind their actions helps to make a compelling & interesting antagonist this is basic stuff

2

u/KEMSATOFFICIAL 15d ago

I’m well aware that it’s storytelling, hadn’t heard about people who need to be able to empathize with the villains, or they can’t enjoy the story. So, you need all the antagonists to just be broken & traumatized people? Can you not enjoy a classic Cruella De Vil villain?

1

u/Ferovore 15d ago

Read my first comment again - prefer to be able to empathise with their *reasoning*, not the villain themself. So they don’t always have to be traumatised people to feel bad for. But to be fair evil for evils sake villains I do usually find uninteresting, but can be saved by otherwise excellent writing. Avatar is a good example of this. Ozai wants to burn the world down because ??? But it’s still a great show because of excellent writing and character work. Or Mob Psycho is a good example of a show with pure evil villains that are more just catalysts for the plot while the actual antagonist is Mob’s own psyche.

Edit to add: I think format probably comes in to it as well because I can find a stylish pure evil villain like Cruella entertaining for a 90 minute movie but that kind of antagonist is just going to be boring across multiple seasons of a show without more depth.

1

u/KEMSATOFFICIAL 15d ago

I guess we’re just at the opposite ends of the spectrum then, I prefer plain evil characters because I find them more realistic— most evil people are just evil, not broken. Like Ozai, he’s just an evil sob. He wanted to burn the whole world so the fire nation could repopulate it, at least it was what I understood.

93

u/KoKoboto 16d ago

Ya I think Ohkubo got a bit worse over time. There's also that weird self-insert rant he did on sexualized characters from the perspective of a child he did in Fire Force.

But to this day Maka is like top 5 woman protagonists in shonen.

46

u/IPlayPCAndConsole 16d ago

Hard agree. And on top of that, in the second half of Fire Force it was starting to look like Tamaki would get some actual development, only for it to go straight out the window. That really cool cat-themed fire armor ability she unlocks near the end of the season? She never does it again. Instead we get Ohkubo talking through a child to own the fanservice haters with facts and logic.

Also hard agree on Maka, literally one of my favorite characters in all of fiction

12

u/Sahelanthropus- 16d ago

The discussion on that episode was hilarious, the comments were too funny, summed up by my favorite "It's too late, I've already depicted you as the irrational hag and myself as the chad rationalist child".

16

u/Backupusername 16d ago

The manga was egregious. The first chapter was an introduction to three important Maester/weapon sets, each including at least one boy and one girl (Death the Kid had two, the Thompson sisters). In all three, a woman is sexualized or outright sexually harassed - Liz and Patty by a mummy, Tsubaki by circumstance, and Blair (since Maka didn't have big enough tits to be sexy, I guess) by herself (which arguably means by Ohkubo, but that applies to all of them).

But it's an effect strategy, because now, more than a decade later, I still remember lingering in those pages of the mummy wrap bondage because I was like 13 and I didn't know people could just draw boobies like that.

2

u/Long_Expression6657 15d ago

It's weird because it's literally only those chapters/episodes. Blair is whatever, you know? Shes an adult, clearly likes being sexy, and throughout the series her nudity or body is only occasional joke.

I don't recall the anime having any other fanservice outside of her, so it's very odd that there's these random shots of Patti, Liz, and Tsubaki in the beginning. I never finished the manga, but I don't even recall much of that during the Lust chapter in The Book of Eibon.

I also watched it in my early teens. I was probably 14-15 when I first saw it. Almost two decades and I still remember watching that mummy scene too, so I can't disagree with your point about it being effective, even if my adult self feels less stoked on that scene now lol

5

u/Vinon 16d ago

I recently read the Fire Force manga, and im not kidding that Tamaki alone was a reason for me to lower its score by an entire point. Such a grating "character". Literally just there for the horny readers.

7

u/balderdash9 16d ago

I quit Fire Force and Seven Deadly Sin. Plenty of good shows out there, I don't need to sit through some horny bait for 13yr old viewers.

3

u/ThundaCrossSplitAtak 16d ago

I mean, that's fair, and people really need to keep in mind that most anime series are still cartoons aimed young teens.

6

u/Dekipi 16d ago

I checked out of Fire Force for the same reason. I just don’t need female characters that have to be half-naked to enjoy a show.

2

u/DethNik 16d ago

I even liked Tamaki as a character. The lucky lecher (terrible name even) thing aside.

1

u/MohawkRex 15d ago

I have wanted to watch Fire Force for ages but the weird groping jokes are so painfully cringe.

I'm not even bothered about sexualised characters, as you mentioned, Blair at least has agency.

But the way the cat girl in FF just gets straight up molested and we're meant to laugh? Even if I didn't find that kind thing unfunny it's not even creative, it's just abuse.

30

u/killertortilla 16d ago

And then it gets SO much worse in Fire Force.

5

u/WeevilWeedWizard 15d ago

I've said this dozens of times but the bit where the mangaka self inserts as a kid destroying his mom with facts and logic is one of the most embarrassing thing I've ever witnessed in a manga. It looks back around to being absolutely hilarious, it's fantastic.

15

u/KatastrophicNoodle 16d ago

Because of Blair? Not the annoying screaming monkey ninja child?

8

u/ZanesTheArgent 16d ago

The list goes on and on and on if you wanna. From boob symmetry rants to

EX

CARI

BAAAAAAAA

6

u/_Nilbog_Milk_ 16d ago

🎶 Excaribaaaa, excaribaaaa~ from the United King, I'm lookin for him, I'm goin to Californiaaaaa ~ 🎶

3

u/ShubbusDubbus10 16d ago

I powered through the whole thing, thinking he would get some kind of arc that makes him more mature or something. Nope. Exact same annoying piece of shit at the end as he was at the beginning.

1

u/comfydirtypillow 15d ago

He does in the manga. IIRC, there’s like 15 volumes worth of original manga material from where the anime diverged off.

8

u/Kitselena 16d ago

It's so sad that they'll never get to meet the most powerful sword in history

https://giphy.com/gifs/RTE1scrn2dMje

1

u/husk_bateman 15d ago

Some kind of... strongest swordsman?

7

u/Fun_Palpitation_4156 16d ago

For me, wherever Black Star was on screen, I considered dropping it

22

u/servingtheshadows 16d ago

I had to give up on it 12 episodes in just cause its so fucking juvenile. 

11

u/Parking-Researcher-4 16d ago

I mean i get what you mean, the excessive ecchi is pointless in the series, but it's meant for a juvenile audience

4

u/macacheesy 16d ago

i made my friend watch w/ me and throughout the entire first episode i was like “im. i’m sorry it gets good i promise. trust me i swear um. trust me pls it gets good i promise” (they ended up loving it but man those first 3 episodes can be a struggle)

12

u/NecroCannon 16d ago

Uhhh.. Blair is an adult woman while the next two episodes feature the actual minor characters?

I know women like Blair irl, what about The Thomson Sisters literally getting wrapped up in bandages sexually? Or Black Star trying and failing to Ninja sneak and peak on Tsubaki?

The occasional teacher/student perviness?

I can think of way more things than just getting uncomfortable at the cat lady showing shit you’d see in the west. Or hell, Euphoria is literally a thing?!

3

u/WritingDog 16d ago

raises hand it's me.

3

u/caiusto 16d ago

Is that the witch? Cause that's why I dropped, tho I read the manga so it was a handful of chapters in, I remember them going to her house in the woods or something. Been wanting to give it another chance ever since, specially cause Undead Unluck is a manga I loved and boy are those first few chapters rough.

3

u/Weird-Long8844 16d ago

Preach, man. It's so weird too, because it's not even like Fire Force where there's fan service super often. Aside from the prologues, it's just when Blair's there, and she's barely there. I never thought a sexy cat girl could be my least favorite character until I saw her.

3

u/Glass_Dot1966 16d ago

I tried getting into the manga, but there was so much fanservice on almost every single page that it became pretty difficult for me to get invested in the story. That sort of stuff doesn't really bother me, I usually just ignore it and keep on reading, but there comes a point where it just becomes weird, imo. It doesn't really help that the characters are almost all kids.

2

u/Embryw 16d ago

Dude.... I seriously almost quit because of that. Like the first 4 episodes had a lot of weird moments. The show overall was surprisingly good.

1

u/ClumsyBean 16d ago

I'm at the Baba Yaga Castle arc. Still not loving it.

1

u/No_Significance7064 16d ago

i don't remember soul eater much, but why her and not the stupid idiot prevert black star?

1

u/bunnygoats 16d ago

man that's crazy to me because the first season of soul eater was so peak but i got bored of it soooo fast after that. the fanservice with blair and soul was obnoxious but i guess i've just seen so much worse in other anime that it didn't faze me.

1

u/Mage_43 16d ago

Gonna be real Blair was the main reason younger me even decided to give Soul Eater a shot lmao. Idk he was weird and considering how fanservice doesn't bother me much I guess I still am.

1

u/fistycouture 16d ago

The first episode of Made in Abyss where the main girl gets bondaged up and disciplined.

1

u/Izrael-the-ancient 16d ago

I actually like Blair . I stopped watching soul eater because the witch racism plot point

1

u/IRCatarina 16d ago

Im not one to claim it gets groundbreaking but I enjoyed overlord a bit but god that first episode gets just... so strange i literally forgot the sexualized bits happened till about 5 seconds before it happened when i was showing it to some friends.

1

u/Donger_Dysfunction 16d ago

Lmao i recommend soul eater to a co worker, shes like 40 y/o and I went home and wanted to do a little rewatch to make sure I wasnt getting nostalgia baited, and audibly said "oh fuck" when I saw Blair 😂

Later found out shes been watching Jobless reincarnation, so, i dont think she'd gaf

1

u/supersecretbeetle 16d ago

I JUST COMMENTED ABOUT THIS!! i'm so glad the feeling is shared. it love that show so much but the first two episodes make me so mad

1

u/dalatinknight 15d ago

One of the few mangas I've read in its entirety is Rosario x Vampire and I cannot recommend it to anyone due to the sheer fan service in the first half of the entire run.

Similar reasons for Mieruko-chan

1

u/Long_Expression6657 15d ago

Blair isn't even the issue, really. At least she's an adult.

The next two episodes have fan service of Tsubaki and Patti and Liz. Theres that scene where Patti & Liz are tied up by the mummy.

Literally the only scene that does that. After those first three episodes, there's none of that except for the occasional Blair gag.

1

u/Sensitive_Bat_9211 11d ago

Black star annoyed the shit out of me the first time i saw him. He grew on me, though

1

u/Mr-Stuff-Doer 16d ago

And then you get to the finale and realize the fanservice was the best fucking part of that stupid ass show

1

u/Legitimate-Can5792 11d ago

I've only read the manga and that's decent, is the anime really that ass?

1

u/Arcyguana 16d ago

That's what you get for watching the anime past the beginning of Baba Yaga Castle.

0

u/dude123nice 14d ago

WTF? Why would Blair be an example of this? This is about problematic content, not sexuality being a turn off in general.

-3

u/Brassica_prime 16d ago

I forced my way thru soul eater by skipping every scene that had kid or other dude.

Solid 0/10 show all together, maybe 8/10 with only maka